Global heating making extreme rain and catastrophic flooding more likely

Study finds extreme rainfall at higher elevations increases by 8.3% for every degree Fahrenheit world warms

A warming world is transforming some major snowfalls over mountains into extreme rain, worsening both dangerous flooding like the type that devastated Pakistan last year as well as long-term water shortages, a new study has found.

Using rain and snow measurements since 1950 and computer simulations for future climate, scientists calculated that for every degree Fahrenheit the world warms, extreme rainfall at higher elevation increases by 8.3% (15% for every degree Celsius), according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.